The following day Cora was cleaning her condo. She’d called Matt first thing that morning and canceled her classes. Matt didn’t fight her on it. He’d even apologized for his treatment of her the other night. Which meant that everyone in the club had known about the sting operation. Everyone but her. Why had she been left out when Matt had been included?

She knew the answer. It was because she wouldn’t have been impartial to Garrett being with another woman. Even though from what Spencer had said, Garrett hadn’t touched her.

She’d just switched another load of laundry while Milo was taking his afternoon nap when there was a knock at the door. She grimaced, not really ready to deal with Garrett, but at least Milo was sleeping.

She opened the door expecting it to be Garrett. But it wasn’t. She squinted up at the man on her doorstep, trying to place him. The light brown hair was mostly covered by a black Stetson, but then she recognized the hazel eyes. Garrett’s friend from the club. What was his name?

He spoke first. “Hi Cora. I know you might not remember me. I’m a friend of Garrett’s, Jackson Stone. I’m a detective with the Jackson Hole Police Department. Could I come inside and talk to you for a minute?”

“Do you have a badge?” she asked before she agreed to let him into her place. After everything that had transpired in the last two days, she wasn’t taking any chances.

A slow smile spread over his lips. “Yes, ma’am.”

He reached in the back pocket of his jeans, withdrew a small wallet, and flipped open a leather case the size of a billfold. The sunlight made his badge glint a bit more, the silver and gold star winking up at her, along with his picture on a card insert that had Jackson Hole Police Department written on it.

“Come on in, Jackson, is it?” she said, stepping back to allow him inside.

He slipped his badge back into his pocket and stepped in. “Appreciate it. And please, call me Jack.”

She closed the door and led him into her kitchen. “Can I offer you anything? Coffee, tea or anything?”

“I’m fine, but thank you for the offer. I’ll get to why I’m here. You walked in on an operation my department coordinated.”

“So I hear,” she said and leaned back against the counter.

“When Garrett first brought the subject to my attention, I recommended that he keep it between us. Not to hurt you, but because of the sensitive nature of the matter. You see, the suspect was a woman he had dated in college.”

“Yeah, Spencer told me.”

Jack shoved his hands in the front pocket of his jeans and replied, “But he likely didn’t tell you that she was trying to blackmail Garrett with a tape she’d recorded of them having sex. She recorded them on purpose, without his knowledge, and what was in the video portrayed Garrett in a rather bad light.”

“It couldn’t have been that bad. They were having sex,” Cora said. Sex was pretty basic. Even the bondage stuff at the club.

“Well, the thing is, I know you understand a bit about the world of BDSM, where pretty much anything goes as long as it’s safe, sane, and consensual. And the suspect in question liked rape fantasies.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh.”

“So if it had gotten out without Garrett proving that she had asked him to do that, fulfill that fantasy, he would have gone to prison,” Jack explained.

Her heart thumped in her chest. How could she have been that wrong and jumped to such wild conclusions? “And did she confess?”

“That’s why we did the operation. We used a Dom method and through Spencer flogging her, were able to get her on tape admitting that she had asked for the rape fantasy and had taped it without Garrett’s consent. What’s more, the FBI was able to locate other men she had blackmailed who had never sought help from law enforcement out of fear that the tape she had of them would get out.”

That changed things immensely. “I see.” She did—or at least, she wanted to—but there was a part of her that was still resisting.

“Cora, I’m going to be frank with you. Garrett didn’t want to keep it from you. He was ordered not to speak about it, and not just by me but our district attorney. And it wasn’t because you would have talked or couldn’t be trusted, but this was a need to know only thing. Because in the event that you didn’t believe him and things went south…”

He didn’t have to say more. She got it. Garrett would have gone to jail for something he hadn’t done. “Boy, are you guys Garrett’s cheerleaders.”

“Cora, we don’t know each other well, but Garrett’s one of the most loyal beings I’ve ever met. When you have him in your corner, he will champion you to the end. He hated that he had to keep this from you but was under orders that he had to. If you need to see the tapes for me to prove it, I will break protocol so that you can see them for yourself.”

“Thank you for explaining it to me. I don’t need to see the videos.” The fact that he was willing to show her police evidence melted away the last vestiges of her anger and hurt.

“Well, then. I will get out of your hair,” Jack said.

She walked him to the front door. “Thank you for stopping by.”

“It’s been a pleasure. And I hope the next time we meet it will be under more auspicious circumstances,” he said and tipped his hat.

She stood at her front door and watched him leave in his black SUV. After he’d gone, she called Spencer.

“Yeah, I need you to come watch Milo,” she said as soon as he picked up.

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes,” Spencer said and disconnected. The guy probably still felt guilty. And, well, a part of her was glad about that, even though she understood the circumstances surrounding it all now.

Spencer was as good as his word and arrived inside of thirty minutes. She’d woken Milo up from his nap because if she didn’t, the kid would be impossible to get down that night. Her son was like her upon waking up, it was something he didn’t care for and he tended to show his displeasure.

But as soon as Spencer walked through the door, Milo shifted gears and was ready to play with his uncle.

“There’s leftover pizza in the fridge if I don’t make it back in time for dinner.”

Spencer looked at her. “You going to Garrett’s?”

“Yes.”

“Thank Christ. Take whatever time you need. I’ll see that the little dude gets dinner and everything.”

She hugged Spencer and said, “Love you. And yeah, we’re okay.”

He hugged her back. “Go get him, Cora. He needs you.”

That’s what she was betting on. Not that he needed her, but that they needed each other. That neither of them was truly whole without the other.